Fennel cacciatore with polenta dumplings

November 17, 2022

   

I think of fennel as a winter vegetable, but I recently noticed a couple of fennel recipes pop up (one was definitely this salad on I Spy Plum Pie) and learned that it sticks around through spring. This allowed me to try the fennel cacciatore recipe in In Praise of Veg, which I'd mentally filed away for next year.

This is another neat case of dropping a simple dumpling dough on top of a bubbling main meal. Here it's cheesy polenta dollops on top of a tomato-sauced fennel base! If you own the kind of casserole dish that can also be used on the stovetop, it's also a one-pot-wonder. I don't; instead I seared the fennel in two batches in a cast-iron frypan, transferred them to a larger frypan to simmer in their tomato sauce, and transferred them again to a baking dish to cook the dumplings through.

That sounds like a lot of effort, but it really was fine (perhaps Michael, who washed up, would disagree). My polenta-water mixture didn't entirely meld, yet it puffed up well in the oven; its texture was unsurprisingly a little coarse. I used green olives instead of kalamata out of personal preference, and forgot to buy pitted ones. In future, I'd use crushed instead of whole tomatoes and remove the cores of the fennel bulbs for a more even texture.

The recipe made four decent servings - enough to feel satisfied, and gone before we had a chance to become bored with it. I hope we'll remember to revisit it when fennel season rolls around again.

Fennel cacciatore with polenta dumplings

(slightly adapted from Alice Zaslavsky's In Praise of Veg)

1 cup polenta

3-4 medium fennel bulbs, stalks and fronds trimmed

2 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 cup pitted olives

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

400g can tomatoes

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 sprigs rosemary

grated parmesan, to garnish

Place the polenta in a small-medium bowl and stir in 1 cup water. Set the mixture aside to meld.

Cut the bulbs into big, chunky quarters; remove the cores if you like. Heat the olive oil up in a frypan over medium heat. Add the fennel and sear it on each side. Turn down the heat and add the olives and garlic, stirring for just a minute or two. Pour in the canned tomatoes plus at least a half-can of water, smashing up the tomatoes a bit if they need it. Sprinkle over the sugar and salt, and simmer everything for 10 minutes. Start heating up an oven to 190°C during the simmer.

When the mixture is done simmering, carefully transfer it to a high-walled baking tray. Drop tablespoonfuls of the polenta mixture onto the top to form dumplings. Cover the dish with foil or a lid and bake for 40 minutes. Retrieve the tray from the oven and remove the covering. Turn the oven up to 220°C. Sprinkle the parmesan over the cacciatore and add the rosemary sprigs. Bake uncovered for 5 more minutes, then serve.